William Johnson Cory
William Johnson Cory (9 January 1823 - 11 June 1892) was an English poet and schoolteacher. Life Overview Corey was born at Torrington, and educated at Eton, where he was afterwards a master. He was a brilliant writer of Latin verse. His chief poetical work is Ionica, containing poems in which he showed a true lyrical gift.John William Cousin, "Cory, William Johnson," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 95. Web, Dec. 29, 2017. Youth and education Cory was born William Johnson, the son of Charles Johnson of Torrington, Devonshire. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he gained the Craven Scholarship in 1844.Cory, William Johnson, Encyclopædia Britannica 1911, 7, 211. Theodora.com, Web, Dec. 29, 2017. Career In 1845, after graduating at the university, he was made an assistant master at Eton, where he remained for some 26 years. He had a great influence on his pupils, and he defended the Etonian system against the criticism of Matthew James Higgins. As a pedagogue he insisted on the centrality of personal ties between teacher and student. , He became a renowned master, nicknamed Tute (short for "tutor") by his pupils. Historian G.W. Prothero has described him as "the most brilliant Eton tutor of his day." Arthur Coleridge described him as "the wisest master who has ever been at Eton." Among his former pupils are numbered Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery; Capt. Algernon Drummond; Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher; Henry Scott Holland; Francis Eliot; W.O. Burrows; Howard Overing Sturgis; Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax; Lord Chichester; and Arthur Balfour.William Johnson Cory, Wikipedia, November 19, 2017, Wikimedia Foundation. Web, Dec. 29, 2017. Last years In 1872, having inherited an estate at Halsdon and assumed the name of Cory, he left Eton. He added the surname Cory to his name in his 50th year. He married late in life, and after 4 years spent in Madeira he settled in 1882 at Hampstead. He died 11 June 1892. Writing Cory proved his genuine lyrical power in Ionica (1858), which was republished with some additional poems in 1891. He also produced Lucretilis (1871), a work on the writing of Latin verses; Iophon (1873), on Greek Iambics; and Guide to Modern History from 1815 to 1835 (1882). Extracts from the Letters and Journals of William Cory, which contains much paradoxical and suggestive criticism, were edited by F.W. Cornish and published by private subscription in 1897. Cory is well noted for a letter in which he poignantly and succinctly articulates the purpose of education. His words are taken by many as a justification for studying Latin. The full quotation goes thus: :At school you are engaged not so much in acquiring knowledge as in making mental efforts under criticism. A certain amount of knowledge you can indeed with average faculties acquire so as to retain; nor need you regret the hours you spent on much that is forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many illusions. But you go to a great school not so much for knowledge as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at a moment's notice a new intellectual position, for the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for the art of working out what is possible in a given time, for taste, for discrimination, for mental courage, and for mental soberness. Above all, you go to a great school for self-knowledge.Eton College. Critical introduction by Thomas Humphry Ward William Johnson, who took the name of Cory in his 50th year, is still remembered by many friends and pupils for his brilliant qualities as a teacher and for his lovable temperament. He will be remembered by the lovers of literature for 3 books, the little collection of poems called Ionica (1858), the very original Guide to English History (1882), and the Extracts from the Letters and Journals of William Cory, collected by his friend F. Warre Cornish and published 5 years after the writer’s death. Of this last, the late Richard Garnett said “It would not be easy to find a more charming volume of its class;” and certainly none contains more pleasant self-portraiture or cleverer sketches, at once shrewd and sympathetic, of the boys and young men with whom the writer, as an Eton master, was brought into close relations. The sentences describing young Lord Dalmeny — the Lord Rosebery of a later day — have been often quoted. But while the Letters show Johnson as the friendly critic and guide, Ionica reveals him as feeling for one or more of his pupils a warmer interest; warmer, indeed, than is commonly either felt or expressed by a modern teacher. Many would regard it as not quite healthy — they feel the same of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; but there can be no doubt that under the impulse of this sentiment Johnson wrote poetry of a high order. There are few poems of fifty years ago that so linger in the memory; greater there are in plenty, but not many that still have such a hold upon those who read them in their youth as "A Study of Boyhood", "Deteriora", and "Parting". We print these, and, to show that Johnson’s admiration for boyhood was larger than any personal affection, the fine poem called "A Queen’s Visit", which tells how a word and a smile from the Head of the State were enough to arouse the heroism latent in boy-nature. Another poem, Amaturus, is given to show how Johnson could understand and express the perfectly normal feeling of a man for a maid. The verses are charming; they have music, and they have that simple directness of expression which is eschewed by many moderns, anxious to leave the complexity of modern life even more complex than they find it. It may discredit Johnson with some of the votaries of these recondite writers to find him saying, so late as 1883, "Tennyson is the sum and product of the art which begins with Homer … He fills my soul, and makes the best part of the forty years of manhood that I have gone through." Certainly Johnson was a Tennysonian, but he was not an imitator of any contemporary. He was steeped in Greek and Latin literature. The lines that are given below (“Guide me with song”) are his translation of his own Greek verses; and of the Latin poems printed in his Lucretilis the great scholar Munro wrote,Cory, Letters and Journals, p. 567. “In my humble judgment they are the best and most Horatian Sapphics and Alcaics which I am acquainted with that have been written since Horace ceased to write.”from Thomas Humphry Ward, "Critical Introduction: William Johnson Cory (1823–1892)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Mar. 24, 2016. Recognition At Cambridge Cory won the Chancellor's Medal for an English poem on Plato in 1843. 2 of Cory's poems, "Mimnermus in Church" and "Heraclitus", were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900."Mimnerus in Church", Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch). Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919). Bartleby.com, Web, May 13, 2012. "Heraclitus". Arthur Quiller-Couch, editor, Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919). Bartleby.com, Web, May 13, 2012. In 1924, an entire book devoted to Cory was printed, entitled Ionicus. The author was Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, one of the most eminent and powerful men of his time. Brett had begun a correspondence with Cory while at Eton, and continued it until the time of Cory's death, a sign of very high esteem, indeed. The dedication mentions 3 Prime Ministers (Rosebery, Balfour, and Asquith) "who at Eton learnt the elements of high politics from IONICUS." Publications Poetry * Ionica (edited by Arthur C. Benson). London: Smith, Elder, 1858; London & Orpington, UK: George Allen, 1891. *''Lucretilis, pleasant hill of Horace: William Johnson Cory's Latin verses'' (edited by Don D. Wilson). Canton, CT: Singular Speech Press, 1982. Non-fiction *''Eton Reform''. London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1861. Part I, Part 2. *''Iophon: An introduction to the art of writing Greek iambic verses''. London: Rivington's, 1873. *''Early Modern Europe: An introduction to a course of lectures on the sixteenth century. Cambridge, UK: E. Johnson, 1869. * ''A Guide to Modern British History, London: C.K. Paul, 1880; New York: Holt, 1880. Part 1: 1815-1830, Part 2: 1830-1835. *''Lucretilis: An introduction to the art of writing Latin lyric verse''. Eton, UK: Spottiswoode; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1901. *''On the Education of the Reasoning Faculties''. New York: Halcyon-Commonwealth Foundation, 1964. Letters and journals * Extracts from the Letters and Journals (edited by Francis Warre Cornish). Oxford, UK: privately published, 1907. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:William Johnson Cory, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 12, 2013. See also * List of British poets References Notes External links ;Poems * Cory in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900: "Heraclitus", "Mimnerus in Church". * Selected Poetry of William Johnson Cory (1823-1892) ("Heraclitus") at Representative Poetry Online *Cory in A Victorian Anthology: "Mimnermus in Church," "Heracleitus," "A Poor French Sailor's Scottish Sweetheart" *Extracts from Ionica: Mimnerus in Church, Amaturus, A Queen's Visit (1851), A Study of Boyhood, Deteriora, Parting, To the Muse * William Johnson Cory at PoemHunter (4 poems) *William Johnson Cory at Poetry Nook (16 poems) ;Books * *''Ionica. With biographical introd. and notes by Arthur C. Benson (1905) ;Audio / video *William Johnson Cory poems at YouTube ;About * William Johnson (Cory) in the ''Cambridge History of English and American Literature. * [http://www.mmkaylor.com Michael Matthew Kaylor, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (2006)], a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the prominent Victorian writers of Uranian poetry and prose, such as Johnson (the author has made this volume available in a free, open-access, PDF version). * Original article is at "William Johnson Cory" Cory, William Johnson Cory, William Johnson Cory, William Johnson Cory, William Johnson Cory, William Johnson Cory, William Johnson Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets